Student Loan Consolidation - How To Get The Best Rates And
By Dean Shainin, Thu Dec 8th

Copyright 2005 Dean Shainin

Student loan consolidation can have many benefits for the careerminded student. With the prices of things going through theroof, going to college can be very costly. Many students don'thave thousands of dollars to pay their way through college.

This is why many college students use student loans to getthemselves through college. When it comes time to pay back theirstudent loans, it can be a real burden and a distraction fromtheir career.

Before you sign up on the dotted line, you should know how toget the best student loan consolidation rate and plan for yourfinancial needs. If you are tired of too many bills and monthlydue dates, it just might be time to find the best student loanconsolidation rate and plan that you can qualify for.

What Is The Idea Behind Student Loan Consolidation?

When a student first applied for several student loans fromseveral different agencies and student loan providers, they eachgave a different interest rate and term for paying back theloans. The idea of student loan consolidation, is to take allthe different student loans and put them into one easyconvenient loan. You then only have to make one monthly loanpayment every month, instead of several loan payments everymonth over time. This saves the student both time and money.Having a lower interest rate and less checks to write everymonth are a couple of advantages of doing a student loanconsolidation.

Credit Check Before You Get Student Loan Consolidation Rates AndPayment Plans

The most obvious way to get the best student loan consolidationrates and payments, is by having great credit. It's easy to getgreat student loan consolidation plans with a credit score, alsoknown as FICO, over 660. But, there are several ways to get thebest student loan consolidation rates and payment plans.

You can do a simple online search on FICO and credit scores tofind the information you need to check out your credit score.Knowing your credit information should be your first step togetting the best student loan consolidation rates. Withknowledge, you will get the best student loan consolidationrates for your financial and credit situation.

Student loan consolidation rates and plans can vary from personto person. The loan rates offered will be based on yourfinancial situation and credit. With a FICO credit score under600, it can be a challenge to get a good student loanconsolidation rate and plan in most cases.

7 Aspects To Consider With Student Loan Consolidation Plans

1. Lower Monthly Payments. Depending on your student loansituation and the type of lender you choose, you may be able tolower your monthly payments by up to 50%

2. Having Simple Loan Payments. By consolidating your studentloans, you only have one loan payment per month and one check towrite. This is very beneficial if you are writing

several checksevery month to multiple lenders.

3. Having Fixed Interest Rates. With some federal consolidationloans you can have a fixed rate for the life of your studentloan. It's best to do research to see what the best interestrates and term you are eligible for. You can check online tocalculate the interest rate on a new student consolidation loanbased on the rates of your current student loans. You can thenround up to the nearest 1/8th of a percent of the weightedaverage of the interest rates on your eligible student loans.

4. Extending Your Payment Period. You may have a lot of studentloan debt. With federal consolidation loans you may be able toextend the payment term up to 30 years. It's a good idea torealize you will end up paying more interest over the life ofyour student loan consolidation. The idea is to get someleverage until your career takes off. You can focus on makingmoney instead of several monthly loan payments.

5. In School Consolidation Programs. While still in school,eligible students can lock in a low rate. This would put youinto repayment status, but since you are still in school, youare automatically put into deferment. The drawback ofconsolidating your loans while in school, is that you lose your6 month grace period. The solution to this would be to requestforbearance for up to 1 year on your student loan consolidation.Here again you can do some research and get more informationonline.

6. Lower Interest Rate. Student loan consolidation can save youthousands of dollars. You may be using credit cards with 10% to28% interest trying to keep up with your bills. This can costyou thousands of dollars when you pay the minimum monthlypayments on high interest credit card debt. Having a studentloan consolidation may be your best option if you can get lowerinterest rates when consolidating your student loans.

7. New Interest Rates. With a new student loan consolidation,you may be able to get a much better interest rate. Interestrates are now at an all time low. You may have been paying ondebt you built up from several years ago, at high interestrates. Things change over time in the financial industry.

Resources Online For Student Loan Consolidation Rates AndPayment Plans

With today's Internet resources, you have an advantage whenlooking for the best student loan consolidation rates and plansonline. If you take some time to do research on the process ofgetting the best student loan consolidation rates and plans, youmay be able to save yourself the high costs on student loanconsolidation.

Online website services can make it easy to see if you qualify.There are many tools and ideas online to help you get the bestrates and plans available for your student loan consolidationneeds.

About the author:Dean Shainin is a consultant specializing in student loanconsolidation. Get valuable resources, tools, information andmore articles on student loan consolidation, visit this site:http://www.studentloanconsolidationtips.com